The Hip Hop & Obama Reader

Edited by Travis L. Gosa and Erik Nielson

Offers a comprehensive, scholarly analysis of the relationship between hip hop and politics in the era of Obama.

The first hip hop anthology to center on contemporary politics, activism, and social change.

Features contributions from distinguished scholars, award-winning journalists, and public intellectuals.

The Hip Hop & Obama Reader

Edited by Travis L. Gosa and Erik Nielson

Description

Barack Obama flipped the script on more than three decades of conventional wisdom when he openly embraced hip hop—often regarded as politically radioactive—in his presidential campaigns. Just as important was the extent to which hip hop artists and activists embraced him in return. This new relationship fundamentally altered the dynamics between popular culture, race, youth, and national politics. But what does this relationship look like now, and what will it look like in the decades to come?

The Hip Hop & Obama Reader attempts to answer these questions by offering the first systematic analysis of hip hop and politics in the Obama era and beyond. Over the course of 14 chapters, leading scholars and activists offer new perspectives on hip hop's role in political mobilization, grassroots organizing, campaign branding, and voter turnout, as well as the ever-changing linguistic, cultural, racial, and gendered dimensions of hip hop in the U.S. and abroad. Inviting readers to reassess how Obama's presidency continues to be shaped by the voice of hip hop and, conversely, how hip hop music and politics have been shaped by Obama, The Hip Hop & Obama Reader critically examines hip hop's potential to effect social change in the 21st century. This volume is essential reading for scholars and fans of hip hop, as well as those interested in the shifting relationship between democracy and popular culture.

The Hip Hop & Obama Reader

Edited by Travis L. Gosa and Erik Nielson

Table of Contents

Preface About the Contributors Foreword Tricia Rose, Brown University Introduction: The State of Hip Hop in the Age of Obama Erik Nielson, University of Richmond Travis L. Gosa, Cornell University PART I: MOVE THE CROWD: HIP HOP POLITICS IN THE U.S. AND ABROAD 1. Message from the Grassroots: Hip Hop Activism, Millennials, and the Race for the White House Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, University of Connecticut 2. It's Bigger Than Barack: Hip Hop Political Organizing, 2004-2013 Elizabeth Méndez Berry, New York University Bakari Kitwana, Author and CEO, Rap Sessions 3. "There Are No Saviors": Hip Hop and Community Activism in the Obama Era Kevin Powell, Author and Activist 4. "Obama Nation": Hip Hop and Global Protest Sujatha Fernandes, Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York 5. "Record! I am Arab": Paranoid Arab Boys, Global Cyphers, and Hip Hop Nationalism Torie Rose DeGhett, Columbia University PART II: CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN? THE CONTESTED DISCOURSE OF OBAMA & HIP HOP 6. Obama, Hip Hop, African American History, and "Historical Revivalism" Pero G. Dagbovie, Michigan State University 7. "Change That Wouldn't Fill a Homeless Man's Cup Up": Filipino-American Political Hip Hop and Community Organizing in the Age of Obama Anthony Kwame Harrison, Virginia Tech 8. Obama/Time: The President in the Hip-Hop Nation Murray Forman, Northeastern University 9. One Day It Will All Make Sense: Obama, Politics and Common Sense Charlie Braxton, Author and Activist 10. "New Slaves": The Soul of Hip-Hop Sold to Da Massah in the Age of Obama Raphael Heaggans, Niagara University PART III: REPRESENT: GENDER AND LANGUAGE IN THE OBAMA ERA 11. YouTube and Bad Bitches: Hip Hop's Seduction Of Girls and The Distortion Of Participatory Culture Kyra D. Gaunt, City University of New York 12. A Performative Account of Black Girlhood Ruth Nicole Brown, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 13. The King's English: Obama, Jay Z, and the Science of Code Switching Michael P. Jeffries, Wellesley College 14. My President is Black: Speech Act Theory and Presidential Allusions in the Lyrics of Rap Music James Peterson and Cynthia Estremera, Lehigh University Afterword: When Will Black Lives Matter? Neoliberalism, Democracy, and the Queering of American Activism in the Post-Obama Era Cathy J. Cohen, University of Chicago Subject Index

The Hip Hop & Obama Reader

Edited by Travis L. Gosa and Erik Nielson

Author Information

Edited by Travis L. Gosa, Assistant Professor of Social Science, Cornell University, and Erik Nielson, Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts, University of Richmond

Travis L. Gosa is Assistant Professor of Social Science at Cornell University's Africana Studies and Research Center. He holds faculty appointments in Education and American Studies, and is affiliated with the Cornell Center for the Study of Inequality. Since 2008, he has served on the advisory board of Cornell's Hip Hop Collection, the largest archive on early hip hop culture in the United States. He teaches courses on hip hop culture, educational inequality, and African American families. His most recent work has been published with peer-reviewed journals Poetics, Journal of Popular Music Studies, Teacher's College Record, Popular Music and Society, and the Journal of American Culture. He also writes regularly for popular outlets, including The Root, FoxNews, Ebony, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Erik Nielson is Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of Richmond, where he teaches courses on African American literature, hip hop culture, and advanced writing. He received his M.A. in English from University College London and his Ph.D., also in English, from the University of Sheffield. He has lectured on African American literature and hip hop culture at major conferences in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, and he has published articles in several peer reviewed journals, including African American Review, MELUS, Race and Justice, International Journal of Cultural Studies, and Journal of Popular Music Studies. He also writes regularly for popular outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and NPR and has been interviewed by a wide range of national media organizations. He is currently at work on his manuscript, Under Surveillance: Policing the Resistance in Hip Hop, for Manchester University Press.